Northwestern Journalism Students Use Bridgeport As A Classroom

Tenzin Gyatso Rinpoche, master at Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Bridgeport.

Submitted

BRIDGEPORT — Many generations of South Siders have called this place home, but for a group of journalism students from Northwestern University this neighborhood was a classroom.

Over 10 weeks in the fall, documentary filmmaker and teacher Brent E. Huffman instructed the sophomores in his “301” journalism course to hit the pavement and dig up stories in Bridgeport.

“This course will ultimately focus on telling stories about the humans of Bridgeport using audio, still images and video,” read the course syllabus. “Emphasis will be put on storytelling, breaking stereotypes, surprise, conflict and drama in documenting the neighborhood.”

At the Medill School of Journalism, the 301 course is an undergraduate's first “real reporting class,” Huffman said.

“It is important to me that they get out of their comfort zone and talk to real people here in Chicago,” he said. “Many of these students have never been outside of Evanston and few have traveled south of Chicago.”

^{Brent E. Huffman in Afghanistan working on his documentary "Saving Mes Aynak." [Submitted Photo.]}

For a group of aspiring reporters learning about a Chicago, Bridgeport is the ideal introduction to everything that makes this city great, Huffman said.

“Bridgeport is an extremely diverse and complex working-class neighborhood that is also experiencing dramatic change and gentrification,” Huffman said. “The neighborhood has a rich history, including racial intolerance and tension. It is important for me that my students look for this conflict and drama in telling stories.”

With that, the students were on the beat. They quickly got a taste of what it’s like to work a story in a big city.

They tracked down stories and found out who to call. They knocked on doors. They holed up in neighborhood coffeehouses and sweated it out when sources wouldn’t pick up the phone.

By the end of the course, students had to complete three assignments: A portrait of a location and the people occupying it, an intimate portrait of an person living in Bridgeport and a “mini” character-based documentary with a narrative arc that's 3-5 minutes long. All three assignments could be done as audio story, photo gallery or video.

Take a look at some of what the students found:

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